February 7, 2006

The right is trying a variation of "Clinton did it" to divert from the NSA illegal wiretapping scandal. In a coordinated effort, they are trying to use the Clinton administration Clipper Chip proposal to justify Bush's illegal, warrantless NSA spying on Americans, so it's a good time to catch up on what the Clipper Chip was.

The Clipper Chip was an attempt by the Clinton Administration to bring encryption into wide use. Encryption is eletronically scrambling e-mail messages and phone calls so no one can eavesdrop. The communications are scrambled on one end and descrambled on the other, so in between anyone who taps in only sees or hears scrambled gibberish. The Clipper Chip would be installed in phones and computers.

It is important to understand that right now anyone can listen in on any call or e-mail that is not encrypted. Currently you have to be quite knowledgable and go to some trouble if you want your calls and e-mails encrypted. If you don't know what I am talking about, you can be sure that your calls and e-mails are not encrypted and anyone can listen in.

So, keeping in mind that Bush has ordered the NSA to listen in on calls and e-mails, and that Clipper was an effort to get calls and e-mails scrambled so no one could listen in, here is what the right-wingers are saying about it now:

Q: Scott, I have a two-part question. Apparently, no one in the White House will challenge Al Gore with now public information that he led the Clinton administration's clipper chip project back in the 1990s to effectively tap every phone, fax machine and computer in the country. And my question: Isn't that worth pointing out to the American people, after he accused President Bush of breaking the law and violating the Constitution by --

MR. McCLELLAN: I think you just did. This is an administration that is forward-looking, Les. We're focused on the priorities of the American people.

Q: Well, how about Gore? You mean you're going to say nothing about Gore and the clipper chip project?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think you already have. No, I'm not going to get into that.

Anyone remember the Clipper Chip? Many do, and it's surprising that some in the mainstream media haven't brought up the topic. For those of you who don't recall, back in 1993 the Internet was just beginning to be used widely by the public and the Clinton Administration believed that some communications might not be susceptible to government interception. Their solution was the endorsement of the mandatory installation of the little gadget into computers, cell phones and fax machines. [emphasis added]

But while Gore denounced the selective and limited use of wiretaps by law enforcement officials on calls generated by suspected foreign terrorists, he had no problem – just a decade ago – calling for wholesale, mandatory surveillance on the phone calls and secure computer communications of every single American.

In fact, beginning in 1993, he ran the "Clipper chip" project for the Clinton administration that would have done just that – bug every phone, computer and fax machine in America.

Despite the fact that the president acted to protect Americans from more 9/11’s, and was well within his rights to do so, when as vice president, Gore once planned to allow the feds to shatter the Constitution by secretly bugging the phones of all Americans and then lied about it.

Like I said, ANYONE can listen in now, and Bush has ordered the government to do just that. You don't need to install anything in phones or computers to listen in on e-mail, you just do it. If Clinton and Gore wanted to listen in our calls they could have just DONE it (they didn't, Bush did) without installing anything. The idea that Clinton was trying to install a chip that lets the NSA listen in - when anyone could already listen in - should set your alarm bells off.

John Ashcroft led the fight against the Clipper Chip, and then later, under John Ashcroft, the NSA started listening in on our calls and e-mails. They were able to do this BECAUSE there was no Clipper Chip installed.

So don't be fooled by this. Don't be misdirected. See the Forest. We know who is and who is not breaking the law. We know who is and who was not illegally listening in on calls and e-mails.

Posted by Dave Johnson at February 7, 2006 3:00 PM

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Comments

Oh, stop it, Dave! The clipper chip was an attempt to spy on us. But it was stupid, blatant, and when Clinton was told by everybody on earth (except you) to shove it up his ass, he dropped it. If only you would.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 7, 2006 6:52 PM

If Clinton was attempting to spy on us, why wouldn't he just spy on us? Why a big public program to put ENCRYPTION CHIPS in phones and computers?

... and you don't think that the Bush Administration wouldn't have used exactly the same logic it is using today, to justify bypassing the normal processes and safeguards that would have been put in place to ensure that the "back door" couldn't be opened except as appropriate?

1) Right now, without Clipper, ANYONE can listen in on our calls and e-mails.

2) Because anyone can listen in, the Bush plan occurred with a total of maybe ten people in the entire structure of the govenment knowing about it.

3) Under the Clipper plan, two separate agencies of government would have the encryption keys - divided in a way that required both to hand them over - under a PUBLIC system, and requiring a court order.

4) That system would only release one key at a time.

5) What is happening today is EVERY e-mail and call is monitored and analyzed by computer. With Clipper ths would not be possible, even if they had every single key, because they would still have to decrypt every single call and e-mail. This takes processing poer. They would STILL have to focus in on specific targets instead of being able to just monitor everyone as they are doing.

(1) Dave, I keep telling you how dead fucking easy it is to secure your email in a convenient and free manner. It's no secret. Anyone who can google can learn about it. You don't do it SIMPLY SO YOU CAN KEEP REPEATING THIS ASSININE LIE.

(2) This is incomprehenisble.

(3) Ha ha ha ha ha ha. That's a joke, right?

(4) More of the same joke, or a new joke?

(5) You are just making this shit up. They can monitor my encrypted mail all day long, but unless they hang a supercomputer on it for a LONG TIME they are not going to know what I'm saying. With your fascist clipper chip, they'd know every damn thing I say -- all about HDTVs, Spector's kid, and other seditious subjects. God help me.

Davem you can't possibly believe any of this crap. You just say it because it amuses you to make your friends spitting crazy angry. I give up. Either you have a nasty sense of fun, or you really are an idiot. I keep saying I won't talk to you about it. I will keep trying.

Posted by: Anonymous at February 8, 2006 12:07 PM

Thomas, that was me (richard -- where are the goddamned cookies?!). Sorry to hi-jack your exchange with crazy Dave. Now you pound on him a while.